On Sunday evening we went to see the revitalised Trashcan Sinatras at The Fleece. After a promising start in the early 90's, they suffered a series of misfortunes which culminated in them being declared bankrupt. Unsurprisingly the few dribbles of music which did emerge in recent years, had lost much of the spark and free flowing glorious melodies which marked them out as a special band.

The gig saw them picking the top tunes from their albums, avoiding in the main the rather more languid approach of some of their work. The crowd was full of men of a certain age and for some reason I found it slightly distressing to see a couple of chaps sporting rugby shirts. I really find the wearing of sportswear for anything other than sport to be totally inexcusable. Stupid I know, but it's my own special prejudice. Then again, it was quite easy to divert my gaze from these sartorially challenged fellows and watch Orynthia beaming from ear to ear, as one of her favourite bands came back to form.

Tonight we are off to the Watershed to see the filmVera Drake. it's rare for a film with such a potentially controversial point of view to receive such widespread acclaim. We popped into the newly expanded Watershed cafe/bar area before Sundays gig, very nice it is too. They have somehow managed to increase the previously tiny no-smoking area quite dramatically. All that we need now is for the refurbishment of cinema 1 & cinema 2 to be completed and all will be well in the world. Well actually that will be the Arnolfini reopens after it's major refit, never could understand why the two best arts places in Bristol had to be partially or totally closed at the same time.